Games by genre

Super Mario Galaxy - Wii

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Summary:

Super Mario Galaxy takes the Mario action you know and love and transports it into a world of gravity-defying levels set amid the stars. Whether you’re a Mario master or playing one of his adventures for the first time, you’ll actively jump from planet to planet with the motion-sensing and pointing capabilities of the controller. Mario’s newest move – the spin move – is performed by giving the Wii Remote a quick shake. It’s the most versatile move in the game and can aide Mario in his many discoveries. On top of all this you’ll find stellar graphics and spot-on camera controls. The camera faithfully moves with Mario, keeping you in perfect position to help him face each galaxy’s challenge. The depth of field created by each galaxy’s unique surroundings makes for a visually stunning.

8.2

No matter what else comes out for a Nintendo, each of them is always remembered by the Mario game or games that came out for that system. For most systems this was a great thing, but the GameCube's Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine, has been dismissed by both critics and consumers as one of the worst 3D Mario games ever made. Can Super Mario Galaxy show the world that Sunshine was just a hiccup in an otherwise stellar franchise?

The short answer to this question is a resounding yes, but lets look at the reasons why. By setting Super Mario Galaxy in space, the game designers found it much easier to each world (level) from each other visually and stylistically. That said, the best thing about this clear separation between each world is that they can each have their own distinct rules. Past games have done this to some extent, but every level in Super Mario Galaxy looks one hundred percent unique and interesting.

Super Mario Galaxy also ditches the extremely gimmicky water backpack from Super Mario Sunshine in favor of a much more tradition 3D platforming style of gameplay. However, the game adds a new kind of collectible called star bits that requires you to point at them on the screen to collect them. I'm sure that Nintendo felt obligated to make use of the system's motion controls, but for games like this, they often just detract from the overall experience.

Thankfully, the sometimes odd motion controls don't take away from the gameplay as a whole. Like most 3D Mario games, Super Mario Galaxy manages to walk the line between being too easy and being too hard. I never felt like I was just breezing through the worlds, but I also never felt like I was being unjustly punished by unforgiving level design, at least for required levels. Some optional levels are certainly crazy hard, but that's the point.

Of course, Super Mario Galaxy is not without its weak spots. Practically every new suit that the game introduces handles terribly, particularly the spring suit. Like any Mario game, the story seems silly and tacked on to the point where you wonder why Nintendo even bothers to write a story for any of their games in the first place. But to be honest, these are minor nitpicks when we're talking about the best game available for the Wii right now.

Super Mario Galaxy sets an incredibly high bar for other games that come out on the Wii, and I certainly hope that they are able to match it, because if they can, the Wii will be able to truly give the Xbox 360 and the PS3 a run for their money when it comes to software. Moreover, Super Mario Galaxy picks the Mario series of 3D platformers back up after they fell so hard in Sunshine, and now I am once again looking forward to whatever Nintendo comes up with for Mario during their next time up at bat.

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